Survey: Moms choose weight loss over IQ

MIAMI (WTVJ/NBC) - Children change lives in wonderful ways, but parenting can also be hard to handle. An anonymous survey of 25,000 women by the Today Show and Parenting Magazine gives insight into how moms really feel.

Forty-five percent of moms said they would choose to weigh 15 pounds less over adding 15 points to their child's IQ.

"It seems in society today women are very concerned about being very thin and very attractive for everyone else instead of what's important: family, child intelligence," mother Lori Maziarz said.

In the survey, nearly 18 percent of moms confessed to medicating their child for a long plane or car trip.

"We've actually done a six-hour flight and he was awake until the pilot said prepare for landing, please put your tray up. I think there were some people looking at me probably about to offer me medication for him," mother Lisa Reyes said.

Forty-three percent of moms admitted they judge others who still breast-feed their toddlers. Maziarz still breast-feeds her son Cooper, and she has experienced that first hand.

"Just the 'oohs' and the looks and then maybe not even being invited to the next play date," she said.

When asked to choose between sex and sleep, 53 percent of moms chose an uninterrupted night of sleep. Only 4 percent said their sex life is the thing they miss most.

Reyes is happy to share her sex life has never been better.

"I talked to some of my girlfriends the other day who were saying, 'Oh it's been six weeks,' and I thought, I don't know if we can go six days," she said.

Most moms seem to relate to wanting some alone time with their partner. Twenty-three percent of moms surveyed craved alone time.

Maziarz is 43-years-old and was with her husband for 10 years before she had their son.

"We had a lot fun going out, and that's been the biggest adjustment I think is not having any alone time," she said.